It is an interesting idea to have a public-civil society-private initiative on preparing development policy and a plan for a special region. This idea will face flack from those who are ossified in a particular statist mindset. Yet the time for it has come, and it is doable.
It is interesting that despite all the new initiatives taken on inclusive growth policies, particularly new institutional building at the local level including networking and planning, the corporate sector has remained largely in splendid isolation. Inspite of all the CSR initiatives, the dominant view is to stay off the government. Participation in the preparation of a development plan for a difficult region by civil society organisations would be an interesting and challenging exercise and I suspect has much larger consequences than those Rahul Gandhi has publicly hinted.
Bundelkhand is a special region. It has a typography of low hills, mounds, valleys and ravines. More than one-third of the land is not available for cultivation and the climate is arid. Irrigation intensity and cropping intensity are low and the region has illiteracy and poverty. The undulating typography, underdeveloped irrigation potential and rainfed farming suggest water conservation, soil management, ground water development, crop diversification and improved agricultural services as strategies. The area is rich in its cultural heritage and vastly increased and improved tourism is a possibility. The area is rich in its animal wealth and has long traded in cattle with regions as far off as Gujarat.
Cereals, fodder, oilseeds and pulses are grown here at very low yield levels. Yields of oilseeds and pulses are comparable to all-India levels which are abysmally low. For example, Canada, from where India imports more than half its pulses, has yields of around 1800 kg per hectare, but in India and in this region, it is as low as 600 kg per hectare. The level of agro services support in the area is abysmal.
This is a handicap because newer seeds are available for oilseeds and pulses and both benefit considerably from judicious pest management. Also processing and marketing would add to income, although the government of India has a very jaundiced policy for dryland crops and imports highly subsidised pulses and oilseeds with no tariff protection, to keep prices down. There is hardly any public procurement at minimum support prices here. There is substantial black cotton soil, so cotton is grown, although unlike other areas there is little Bt cotton. Tourism infrastructure and training for tourism services as also for agri services could create many jobs for unemployed youth.
The Ken Betwa Project could augment water resources in a big way. I opposed the initial project because it gave a lot of data from soil scientists to show that flood irrigation would destroy two-thirds of its soils. Limited irrigation (for oilseeds, cotton, fodder crops and pulses) could be very beneficial, but the actually designed irrigation for flood paddy would have been a disaster.
Hopefully these warts have been sorted out and a new Ken Betwa would bring prosperity. In the early 1980s, Jaya Bhaduri?s father had written a few articles in The Statesman from Bhopal to show that the Tawa project was creating havoc. Indira Gandhi wanted to know more. When I reached there, I found that a gate of the canal would not close and so it was mercilessly flooding good black cotton soil which becomes a nightmare when marshy. The Tawa had been designed for paddy and of course it would hardly grow in this soil. I asked them why they were forcing paddy on this soil. I was told that was the priority in the national plan. They had set up a research centre where they could grow nine quintal of paddy which was less than the unirrigated yield. I am supposed to be a big dam walla but swore to myself that if I have anything to do with it we would not spoil good land.
This level of detail in an opinion piece is essential because that?s what local planning is all about. The moral is to solve problems there. The Planning Commission is giving Rs 12 crore to build a district plan. It can be used for hiring experts, consultants and building good projects. It should also be used to build institutions which work and which may not always be the sarkar. I haven?t seen a single good plan yet. So, if you are a good NGO, a good self-help group or coop, a good company, and a good collector, let?s build a good plan. Do it in Bundelkhand but Rahul Gandhi won?t mind if you do it elsewhere too.
The author is a former Union minister and former vice-chancellor, JNU